FRIDAY FEB 24, 2017
VOL. 43, NO. 07
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Watch for more online at: WWW.BOWENISLANDUNDERCURRENT.COM
Five Year Financial Plan Perspectives
Experience Card
Pink Shirt Day
Making the discount work for more people
Photos and reflections
Howe Sound: Hope for recovery lies in community commitments Bowen Islanders stand-out for contributions to report on Howe Sound’s health
Bowen Islanders converged on the Vancouver Aquarium last Thursday to celebrate the launch of the Oceanwatch Howe Sound report. From left: Bob Turner, Stephen Foster, Sue-Ellen Fast, Will Husby, D.G. Blair, Ross Beaty, Trisha Beaty, Adam Taylor, Tom Rafael. Missing: Bonnie Brokenshire, Peter Ross.
MERIBETH DEEN EDITOR
An attempt to measure the health of Howe Sound has brought together scientific, indigenous and historical perspectives, and also, the contributions of almost a dozen Bowen Islanders. At a launch last week at the Vancouver Aquarium, Andrew Day, the Executive and Vice President of the Coast Ocean Research Institute, said the Ocean Watch Howe Sound report reflects “the great thinning of life” we are all living through, but also the beginning of action to protect the region. The 364 page report covers everything from the state of forage fish, to water quality, stewardship efforts and development pressures. Day asked the audience at the launch to consider connections between the subjects, pointing to the chapter on plankton, noting that if there is silt in the water (usually caused by development and industrial activities) the sunlight is blocked and the plankton can not bloom. “Without plankton, there is nothing for the salmon to eat. Without salmon, there’s no food for whales,” said Day. He pointed to the return of Orcas to the Sound as a victory, and noted that 2015 had the greatest number of sightings reported since the early 2000s. “Even though we are seeing the recovery of whales, we are only seeing a fraction of what has been here,” he said, going on to explain that Howe Sound was once home to 80 Orcas, all of which were killed by a commercial whalers in one year. On sea stars, he said that while some species are showing a recovery after being decimated a few years ago there are 20 species that show no signs of recovery at all. continued PAGE 3
Meribeth Deen, photo
Communities push for greater involvement in Woodfibre LNG project MERIBETH DEEN EDITOR
Bowen Island councillors Sue Ellen Fast, Melanie Mason and Maureen Nicholson joined members of other Howe Sound communities on the weekend as well a MP Pamela GoldsmithJones and MLA Jordan Sturdy to talk about community input on the Woodfibre LNG project, the environmental assessment process and the sharing of information. Councillor Fast said that now that the project has been approved, communities want to be able to see information relating to how Woodfibre LNG is meeting the conditions of the BC Environmental Assessment process and the Squamish Nation
environmental assessment process, and provide comment input and even oversight. “We were also concerned that there were some questions that were posed to Woodfibre during Environmental Assessment working groups that the company did not seem obligated to answer,” says Fast. “I was glad, in this recent meeting, to hear our MP say that she would be representing our concerns about Howe Sound and the Federal environmental assessment process in Ottawa and our suggestions about what happens next.” Fast says that MLA Jordan Sturdy is looking at the creation of a liason committee to oversee the flow of information to and from communities about the project and incidents that may
occur. “There was a spill at the Woodfibre site in September, and the company did follow the legislation and report the spill to the province but they left officials in Squamish in the dark,” says Fast. “This is an example of where greater communication is required. We would need to ensure that the working group process was run by some kind of independent organization, because lots of people said they would not trust the company to be in charge.” Fast adds that MP Goldsmith-Jones will circulate a summary of the meeting recommendations. Meanwhile citizens are invited to submit comments on 3 proposed changes to the WoodFibre LNG project by March 11.